学进去

Every Saturday evening, many people come to an open square in a small town in Xi' an. They want to watch Chen Kun and his friends put on a play. During the play, the audience（观众）can hear them, but they can not see them. That is because they are putting on a shadow puppet play（皮影戏）.

Shadow puppets are made of hard leather（皮革）. The leather is cut out in the shape of a person, an animal or an object. Each puppet is painted in bright colours and put on a stick. Some puppets have movable arms and legs.

During a shadow puppet play, Chen stands behind a white screen with lights behind it. The audience sit in front of the screen. Chen and his friends hold the puppets very close to the screen so the audience can see the puppets' shadows clearly. Then they move the puppets around and do the voices of the different characters.

Shadow puppet plays are a traditional Chinese art. Now with TV and films, shadow puppet plays are not as popular as before. To encourage more young people to learn the skills of shadow puppet plays, Chen provides training courses for students to teach them how to make shadow puppets.

Chen and his friends often work very hard for little money, but they do not mind. They want to keep this traditional art form alive.